Day 111 - Olympic Lakes and Beaches

Day 2 in Olympic started out with a drive to the Elwha valley to see the remains of a dam removed last year in order to restore the Elwha River and its Salmon run. A recent movie Damnation highlighted this dam removal as a start to a larger trend in waterway restoration. Bill and Roman encouraged me to consider dam removal as a potential career option:) Here's a pic of the remaining spillway and dam removed to the left.

Out next stop was an overlook of the deep and clear Lake Crescent. This peaceful lake is over 350 feet deep in parts.

The Marymere Falls hike at Lake Crescent climbed gently through a dense forest and ended at a tranquil falls. The symmetry of this falls was especially impressive.

We continued west toward tonight's lodging near the Quilliyute River and the city of Forks, a town made famous as the setting for the Twilight series. A drive to the Pacific Coast made us understand why this area was chosen. Smooth rocks lined the misty seashore, along with stark white tree trunks crystallized by the salt water, along with small islands topped with plants and trees out in the ocean. Rialto Beach was our first stop.

Followed by First Beach near the also-famous Twilight town of La Push.

After the new and lucid visuals of the beach, we settled in back at our riverfront lodging for a calm evening.

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Day 104 - Glacier to Vancouver

The hike up Balu Pass was supposed to be fairly easy, beautiful and dotted with waterfalls, but when I talked to the park ranger and learned that Vancouver was an eight hour drive away, I decided to skip Balu and drive west. I left behind this pretty view. And drove many hours through pristine mountains, fewer and fewer snow-capped ones the further west I drove. Some of the valleys were flooded to make reservoirs, leaving scenic sights. I eventually made it to Vancouver and drove right on through to Point Roberts USA, a five mile by five mile coastal land just below the 49th parallel and thus in the USA. The park ranger had suggested this as a good place to camp but being late of the Thursday night before the Fourth of July there were no spots available. I drove around instead and stopped at a forested coastal park. After ten minutes of walking I came to my first grand Pacific view with Mount Baker 60 miles east. The San Juan Islands and Orca Islands could also b...

Day 122 - Mount Saint Helens

Mount Saint Helens is sinister and wonderful. I spent the morning at Rainier watching the end of the British Open on my phone, then drove south to Saint Helens. I arrived at the park's northeast entrance by early afternoon. A massive bulge of rock built up on the northeast side of the mountain before the 1980 eruption and then caused a tremendous landslide when the eruption started. I drove to the Windy Ridge at the end of the road, listened to a ranger describe before and after photos of the mountain, then hiked up to a high viewpoint. You can see the circular ridge with a notch missing where the landslide occurred, the desert-like exposed right-side where the landslide blew away life and covered 15 miles of terrain with 150 feet of dirt and rock, the greenery that was on the lucky side of the eruption, and Spirit Lake which was covered by dirt and slime and fallen trees for years. The mountain was over a thousand feet higher before it erupted. After taking in t...

Day 62 - Colorado National Monument

Established as a national monument early in 1911, Colorado NM is known for its high canyon "rim road" and sandstone spires of Monument Canyon. The canyons of west Colorado are pretty--as they have more green trees and shrubs than the more famous Utah canyons. This gives them a more alive feeling, although the sandstone spires were formed many thousands of years ago by erosion. Rim Rock road curves up the the top of the canyon cliff, goes through several round tunnels and is lined with scenic viewpoints. The best views were in he Monument Canyon section, and included in sequence, the Coke Ovens, The Kissing Couple (behind my head), and the most famous of all: Independence Monument, the tall spire in pic 3 and viewed from the side in pic 4. The original promoter and caretaker of the park, John Otto, was the first person to climb Independence Monument and now it's a climbing right of passage. Every July 4 climbers ascend and mount an American flag at the summit. Fun! ...

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